Brown sounds open AP’s season

     (NWPR) – Launching the Arts Place 2010-11 Performance Series at the Portland Center on Saturday, October 9 at 7:30 pm, the Alison Brown Quartet showcases an original instrumental sound that blends Jazz, Bluegrass, Latin and Folk music, and takes the banjo far from its stereotyped hillbilly roots. For over 16 years, the ‘Brown Quartet’ has toured nationally and abroad and has achieved much critical acclaim. 

     Grammy-nominated for her first solo, “Simple Pleasures” and awarded the Banjo Player of the Year Award by the International Bluegrass Music Association, Brown began her music career at a young age, playing banjo in several Southern California bands alongside fiddler Stuart Duncan as a teenager. After graduating from high school, bluegrass took a back seat while Brown attended Harvard University, earned an MBA, and worked as an investment banker. However in 1995 with her husband Garry, they founded Compass Records. Their discography includes five releases on Vanguard Records as well as six on their own label, including “The Company You Keep” in March 2009.

     Tickets are available in person at the box office, or by phone at 260.726,4809, or online at www.artsland.org.